It is a tall order to be the creative director of a house during its 60th anniversary. And to do that in only your third season is an even taller one. Yet Clare Waight Keller came through this challenge with suitable aplomb for Spring. It was her most accomplished collection yet.

The designer appeared unbowed by the weight of history—what was shown today was not a greatest-hits collection. Yet, at the same time, she seemed to have subtly absorbed the lessons of the archive to be found in the Judith Clark-curated "Chloé: Attitudes" retrospective currently showing at the Palais de Tokyo. The main lesson being that the unifying factor in Chloé's history is not a surface style, but rather a state of mind. Gaby Aghion, the founder of the brand, had wanted to free women from the heaviness and import of haute couture. She did this with a lightness and an insouciance in her attitude to fashion and to life. "I actually started by looking at transcripts of Gaby's talks with us," Waight Keller explained of the collection after her show. "She said something that really struck me: 'I never explain anything. I live my life, and I live the life I love.'"